p. [210] Song. This song, with six additional verses (certainly not the work of Mrs. Behn), is found in a broadside, which version is given in Vol. IV. of the Roxburghe Ballads (pp. 656-9), issued by the Ballad Society. In a similar way the song 'Ah Jenny gen your Eyes do kill', sung in the City Heiress (vide Vol. II, p. 253), was in another broadside amplified to no less than eighty lines, and dubbed 'The Loves of Jockey and Jenny'. Ebsworth in his note on this song (Roxburghe Ballads, VI, pp. 176-80) refers to Mrs. Behn and says: 'it is less her handiwork than that of her friend Tom D'Urfey, who considered himself facile princeps in the writing of Anglo-Scotch ditties'. Similar treatment was accorded the 'Song made by a Gentlemen' in Sir Patient Fancy, iii, i (Vol. IV, p. 44). For the ballad writer's additions to this vide Roxburghe Ballads, VI (46-9). It is noticeable that these four stanzas ('Young Jemmy was a Lad') under the title Jemmey appear in Female Poems on Several Occasions. 'Written by Ephelia. The Second Edition, with large Additions' (1682). They are not in the first edition (1679) of these Poems. Jemmy is, of course, Monmouth, and in the line 'But oh he dances with a Grace' we have an allusion to his skill in dancing. Evelyn speaks of him as 'an excellent dancer'.
p. [211] Nickey Nackeys. This song is sung in The Roundheads (vide Vol. I, p. 397). Nickey Nackey is the name which the old senator Antonio (a satire on Shaftesbury) gives to the Greek courtezan Aquilina, Venice Preserv'd, iii, i. There may be an allusion to some mistress of that debauched Machiavel.
p. [212] A Paraphrase on the Eleventh Ode.
Tu ne quaesieris scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconöe, nec Babylonios
tentaris numeros—Horatii, Carminum, I, xi.
p. [212] A Translation. This charming poem,
Lydia, bella puella candida,
Quae bene superas lac et lilium,
Albamque simul rosam rubidam,
Aut expolitum ebur Indicum....
twenty-five lines in length, was often but quite erroneously ascribed to Cornelius Gallus. vide Scaliger Poëtices, Lib. VI. It has very frequently been rendered. The versions of Rochester, of Nott, and of Elton are all particularly graceful.
p. [213] A Paraphrase. As this is not even claimed to be an exact translation from the Heroides we must not too strictly judge any divergence from the original.
Lycidus (1688).
p. [295] The Earl of Melford, &c. Knight of the most Noble Order of the Thistle. John Drummond, first Earl and titular Duke of Melford (1649-1714) was the second son of James, third Earl of Perth. He filled various posts of importance in Scotland, for which country he was in 1684 appointed Secretary of State. Converted to Catholicism, with his brother (Lady Anne Gordon, their mother, had been a staunch Catholic), the two are said practically to have ruled Scotland for three years' space. A firm follower of James II, he accompanied him to exile and supported all his measures. During this period he was busy with many intrigues, and was attainted in 1695. He died at Paris after a long illness in the year 1714.